“You cannot be with someone just because you don’t want to hurt him. You have your own happiness to think about.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, quote from The Van Alen Legacy
“Maybe weakness is a strength of a kind.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, quote from The Van Alen Legacy
“The world in your mind is as real as the world outside of it.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, quote from The Van Alen Legacy
“Schuyler pulled Oliver close and hugged him tightly. "Thank you," she whispered. Thank you for loving me enough to let me go.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, quote from The Van Alen Legacy
“Bonds are like rules, they're meant to be broken.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, quote from The Van Alen Legacy
“Prove it!" she hissed. "Prove you are who you are!"
"We don't have time for this! You really want me to prove who I am?" he asked.
"Yes!" she challenged.
In answer, he took her in his arms, lifting her up and against the wall. He pressed his lips against hers, and with each kiss she could see into his mind, into his soul. She saw a year of hate...saw him alone, alienated, hurt. She had lied to him and had left him. With every kiss he made her see, made her feel...every emotion, every dream he had of her...every ounce of his wanting and his need...and his love...his all-consuming, life-affirming love for her. In the darkness they found each other again...and she kissed him back, so greedily and hungrily, she never wanted to stop kissing him...to feel his heart against hers, the two of them intertwined together, his hands in her hair, then down the small of her back. She wanted to cry from the overwhelming emotion that engulfed the two of them....
"Now do you belive me?" Jack asked huskily, pulling away from a moment so they could look into each other's eyes. Schuyler nodded, breathless. Jack. Every fiber of her being tingled with love and desire and remorse and forgiveness. Oh Jack...the love of her life, her sweet, her soul...”
― Melissa de la Cruz, quote from The Van Alen Legacy
“Thank you for loving me enough to let me go.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, quote from The Van Alen Legacy
“It was so nice just to live in the moment, to enjoy holding him so closely, to pretend for a little while that they were merely two young people in love and nothing else.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, quote from The Van Alen Legacy
“She can't let him go not telling him what she was about to do.
Kingsley...I can't do this. I'm coming with you.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, quote from The Van Alen Legacy
“Memories were moving pictures in which meaning was constantly in flux. They were stories people told themselves.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, quote from The Van Alen Legacy
“The Code of the Vampires decreed that anyone who violated the Sacred Law was condemned to death, the blood burning. Charles had refused to subject Allegra to the sentence. But Mimi was a different matter. Mimi walked out of the church, knowing that if she ever saw Jack again, she would have to kill him.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, quote from The Van Alen Legacy
“Maybe she'd been drinking too much of the super-sweet Mexican Coca-Cola they had down here. Or maybe she was just tired, alone, and far from home. Because somewhere in the brittle, concrete center of Azrael's dark heart, something was melting.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, quote from The Van Alen Legacy
“Almost halfway down the aisle, she saw someone she wasn't expecting, and she almost stumbled on her satin heels.
Kingsley Martin stood at the end of a pew, his arms crossed. He was wearing a tuxedo as well. Just like any other guest. What was he doing here? He was supposed to be in Paris! He was supposed to be gone!
He looked directly at Mimi.
She heard his voice loud and clear in her head. Leave him.
Why should I? What do you promise me?
Nothing. And everything. A life of danger and adventure. A chance to be
yourself. Leave him. Come with me.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, quote from The Van Alen Legacy
“They did it for love, and sometimes love makes us do the irrational .. even the inexcusable.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, quote from The Van Alen Legacy
“She was a stranger in her own life, a tourist in her own body.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, quote from The Van Alen Legacy
“You are healed." Allegra nodded. "You are no longer a Silver Blood." She paused. "But you are no longer a vampire either."
Bliss started. No longer a vampire-but what did that mean? Did it mean she was just human?”
― Melissa de la Cruz, quote from The Van Alen Legacy
“You're late," she said, tapping her watch.
"No, you're just early.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, quote from The Van Alen Legacy
“I don't trust an organization that would make policy out of fear.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, quote from The Van Alen Legacy
“Bonds are made to be broken," he said. "Just like rules.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, quote from The Van Alen Legacy
“Do not cry for me, Azrael. Do not waste your tears. You made your decision. And this is mine. Sacrifice seems to be my destiny. A funny thing for a selfish man, isn't it? They always called me weak back then...”
― Melissa de la Cruz, quote from The Van Alen Legacy
“I'm proud of you, Bliss," he said.
"Michael's sword released the souls that were trapped in your blood. You freed them. You freed me."
"But now I'm never going to see you again, am I?" she asked.
Dylan smiled. "It's unlikely. But I never say never.'
"I wish you wouldn't go. I'll miss you so much," Bliss said.
"I'll miss you too."
Dylan put his hand up, and so did Bliss. But this time, instead of touching air, she felt his warm hand grasping her cold one. She looked at Allegra. Somehow, she knew her mother was making this happen. Dylan leaned down, and she could feel his lips, soft and inviting, gently kissing hers. Then Dylan was gone. But Bliss did not feel anguished. She felt at peace. Dylan was not broken and incomplete anymore. He was whole.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, quote from The Van Alen Legacy
“memories were tricky things…they weren’t stable. they changed with perception over time. …they shifted, and [she] understood how the passage of time affected them. the hard working striver might recall his childhood as one filled with misery and hardship marred by the cat calls and mae calling of playground bullies, but later, have a much more forgiving understanding of past injustices. the handmade clothes he had been forced to wear, became a testament to his mother’s love. each patch and stitch a sign of her diligence, instead of a brand of poverty. he would remember father staying up late to help him with his homework – the old old man’s patience and dedication, instead of the sharpness of his temper when he returned home – late- from the factory. it went the other way as well.
[she] had scanned thousands of memories of spurned women, whose handsome lovers turned ugly and rude. roman noses, perhaps too pointed. eyes growing small and mean. while the oridnary looking boys who had become their husbands, grew in attractiveness as the years passed, so that when asked if it was love at first site, the women cheerfully answered yes. memories were moving pictures in which meaning was constantly in flux. they were stories people told themselves.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, quote from The Van Alen Legacy
“Why should I? What do you promise me?
Nothing. And everything. A life of danger and adventure. A chance to be yourself. Leave him. Come with me.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, quote from The Van Alen Legacy
“Sometimes she was even sure that she had ever really existed.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, quote from The Van Alen Legacy
“When she reached the shallow end, Kingsley held out his hand and pulled her up, but she lost her step and fell into his arms, her body crushing momentarily against his.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, quote from The Van Alen Legacy
“Inside the church, the bondsmaids were walking slowly down the aisle,
with the little petal girls. Trinity turned to give Mimi her last words of
motherly advice: 'Walk straight. Don't slouch. And for heavens's sake,
smile! It's your bonding!?' Then she too walked through the door and
down the aisle. The door shut behind her, leaving Mimi alone.
Finally, Mimi heard the orchestra play the first strains of the 'Wedding
March.' Wagner. Then the ushers opened the doors and Mimi moved to the threshold. There was an appreciative gasp from the crowd as they took in the sight of Mimi in her fantastic dress. But instead of acknowledging her triumph as New York?s most beautiful bride, Mimi looked straight ahead, at Jack, who was standing so tall and straight at the altar. He met her eyes and did not smile.
'Let's just get this over with.'
His words were like an ice pick to the heart. He doesn't love me. He has
never loved me. Not the way he loves Schuyler. Not the way he loved Allegra. He has come to every bonding with this darkness. With this regret and hesitation, doubt and despair. She couldn't deny it. She knew her twin, and she knew what he was feeling, and it wasn't joy or even relief.
What am I doing?
"Ready" Forsyth Llewellyn suddenly appeared by her side. Oh, right, she
remembered, she had said yes when Forsyth had offered to walk her
down the aisle.
Here goes nothing. As if in a daze, Mimi took his arm, Jack's words still
echoing in her head. She walked, zombie-like, down the aisle, not even
noticing the flashing cameras or the murmurs of approval from the
hard-to-impress crowd.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, quote from The Van Alen Legacy
“School was more than academics; an education prepared you for the humdrum of real life: working with others, tempering one's personality to assimilate with the group but without losing your individual identity, understading the factors of logic, reasoning, and debate. For a person - vampire or human - to succeed in the world, unlocking the mysteries of the universe was insufficient. One would also need to grasp the mysteries of human nature.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, quote from The Van Alen Legacy
“Kingsley smiled his Cheshire smile. And without a word, he called up the white darkness—the subvertio—a spell that unlocked what could not be unlocked, that destroyed what could not be destroyed.
There was a rumbling, a shaking, like the strongest earthquake, and the iron gate crumbled, and the path began to melt. the demon shrieked, but Kingsley just looked at Mimi the entire time.
"Azrael...”
― Melissa de la Cruz, quote from The Van Alen Legacy
“<spoiler>Azrael...
In a flash, they disappeared. The path, the gate, the demon, and the Silver Blood.
Kingsley was gone. Trapped in Hell for eternity.
Mimi collapsed to the ground, as if her heart had imploded in her chest.</spoiler>”
― Melissa de la Cruz, quote from The Van Alen Legacy
“As long as she could remember who she was, she was okay. She wouldn't go crazy. At least not today.”
― Melissa de la Cruz, quote from The Van Alen Legacy
Melissa de la Cruz
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“Once, if my memory serves me well, my life was a banquet where every heart revealed itself, where every wine flowed.”
― Arthur Rimbaud, quote from A Season in Hell
“It isn't about the welfare check. It never was.
It isn't about sexual permissiveness, or personal morality, or failures in parenting, or lack of family planning. All of these are inherent in the disaster, but the purposefulness with which babies make babies in places like West Baltimore goes far beyond accident and chance, circumstance and misunderstanding. It's about more than the sexual drives of adolescents, too, though that might be hard to believe in a country where sex alone is enough of an argument to make anyone do just about anything.
In Baltimore, a city with the highest teen pregnancy rates in the nation, the epidemic is, at root, about human expectation, or more precisely, the absence of expectation.”
― David Simon, quote from The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood
“We circled around and came in from the northwest.” I lifted my wrist to show him the compass on my watch band, although I hoped that, being the pilot, he knew we’d approached from the northwest. “I was looking out the window. I saw a woman running down the street. There was a pack of dogs after her and a guy with a switchblade down the street in the direction she was running.”
“Ma’am,” he said, still very patiently. I reached out and took a fistful of his shirt. Actually, at the last moment, I grabbed the air in front of his shirt. I didn’t think security could throw me out of the airport for grabbing air in a threatening fashion, not even in this post-9/11 age.
“Don’t ma’am me . . .”
― C.E. Murphy, quote from Urban Shaman
“A woman can always strive to be stronger in the face of painful emotions.”
― Morgan Rhodes, quote from Crystal Storm
“help meet. But who said anything about what he deserves? You can only realize your womanhood when you are functioning according to your created nature. To covet his role of leadership is to covet something that will not make God, you, or him happy. It is not a question of whether or not you can do a better job than he; it is a matter of doing what you were “designed” to do. If you successfully do the job of leading the family, you will not find satisfaction in it. It is far better that the job be done poorly by your husband than to be done well by you. Your excellence as a help meet to him may very well be God’s plan for improving his leadership role in the family. Your female nature cannot be retrofitted to the male role without permanent damage to the original design.”
― Debi Pearl, quote from Created to be His Help Meet
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